Whatever happened to Robert Blake?

Q: Is Robert Blake dead, or is he in prison? -- From the front desk.

A:  Neither.

The 76 year-old actor did spend about a year in jail after being arrested and charged in connection with the murder of his wife of six months, Bonnie Bakley.

Bakley was shot outside a Los Angeles restaurant in 2001; Blake was arrested in 2002 and denied bail.  In 2003, he posted the $1.5 million bail and stayed under house arrest until his 2005 trial, at which he was acquitted.

His last movie was David Lynch's bizzaro "Lost Highway" in 1997.

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I was talking with a library regular who said she heard that a group of 12 or more cattle were collectively referred to as a flink.

She said she grew up on a farm and never heard of this.   Though I didn't grow up on a farm, I've not heard of this either.

Turning to Google, I did find a couple places that listed a flink of cattle as 12 or more; however, none of the sites seemed reputable or reliable.  

One site seemed to suggest this came from the inside of a Snapple cap where it is the beverage company's quirky habit to run "Snapple Real Facts." (Some of which have been disproven by the likes of snopes.com and the program MythBusters.)

I perused the Snapple site to no avail.

I was able to locate a reliable source of an "animal group terminology" list at the U.S. Geological Survey Department of the Interior (www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm).  That list, by the way, did not list a flink of cattle. There, cattle are in either droves or herds.

One reliable source I did find the word "flink" in was the Oxford English Dictionary, where the interjection means "to behave in a cowardly manner."

Eric Norris is the adult department librarian at the Hays Public Library. "Ask Eric" questions can be mailed to 1205 Main, Hays, KS, 67601, submitted through www.hayspublib.org at the "Ask Eric" link or e-mailed to enorris@hayspublib.org.